Special Contest Call Sign

Policy and procedure

1. The holder of a UK Amateur Radio Full Licence, Full (Club) Licence or Full (Reciprocal) Licence may apply for a Special Contest Call sign (“SCC”). This call sign may only be used in amateur radio contests of no more than 48 hours duration, run with the aim of contacting as many other stations as possible in a given period of time and run by an amateur radio club, national or international amateur radio association or another organisation (including amateur radio publications), generally accepted within the amateur radio hobby (locally, nationally or internationally) as being a bona fide contest organiser

2. The call sign will be in the format ‘G’ or ‘M’, followed by a chosen digit and a chosen suffix letter. Examples are G8Z or M7R. We have made 520 call signs available, (G)(*)(#)(A-Z) and (M)(*)(#)(A-Z), where ‘*’ is an applicable Regional Secondary Locator (if any) and ‘#’ is a digit from 0 to 9.

3. Although variations are granted by Ofcom, the RSGB administers and distributes SCCs for us. Please apply on the following form giving three choices of call signs, in order of preference. The RSGB publishes a list of SCCs, which is a guide to availability. Applications take up to four weeks to be processed.

Qualifying criteria

4. Applicants must meet two sets of criteria—participation criteria and achievement criteria

4.1 Participation criteria
Individual licensees (or the licence-holder in the case of club licensees) must be able to supply evidence of having entered at least five contests from the list in Table 1 within the last three years. Ofcom will also consider results from other contests, not listed in Table 1. In those cases, Ofcom will assess the suitability of the contest for the purposes of issuing an SCC. If you are requesting a variation to an individual licence (as opposed to a Full (Club) licence), you must have entered all of the contests as a single operator. If you are applying on behalf of a club, the contests may have been entered as a single operator or as a multi-operator team.

4.2 Achievement criteria
The applicant must have accrued five achievement points from the contests entered. One point is accrued if the licensee (or licence-holder) makes at least one fifth (20 percent) of the number of contacts of the leader. Two points are accrued if the licensee (or licence-holder) makes at least one half (50 percent) of the number of contacts of the leader. Note: If a UK call sign is listed as being used in a contest, ‘leader’ means the leading station in the UK in the section entered (if applicable). If a non-UK call sign is listed as being used in a contest, ‘leader’ means the overall leading station in the contest in the section entered (if applicable).

Table 1: List of qualification contests

ARRL DX CW

ARRL DX SSB

ARRL 1.8MHz CW only

ARRL 28MHz

ARRL RTTY Roundup

BARTG HF RTTY

BARTG SPRINT

CQ WPX CW

CQ WPX RTTY

CQ WPX SSB

CQ WW CW

CQ WW RTTY

CQ WW SSB

CQ WW 160m CW

CQ WW 160m SSB

IARU HF Championship

RSGB IOTA (July)

WAE DX CW

WAE DX RTTY

WAE DX SSB

RSGB 50MHz Trophy (June)

RSGB 144MHz Trophy (Sept)

RSGB 432MHz – 248GHz (Oct)

RSGB March 144MHz/432MHz

RSGB May 432MHz – 248GHz

RSGB 144MHz Marconi Memorial

Russian DX

5. Individual licensees wishing to apply for an SCC must supply details of achievements gained under their own individual call sign (including individual SCC if applicable).

6. If the Licence revalidation date falls due, during the term of the SCC variation, the variation may be withdrawn if the licensee fails to revalidate the Licence. This is covered by Clause 6(3) of the Licence.

7. The RSGB administers and distributes SCCs and also advises Ofcom on applications. However, the RSGB’s advice is only a recommendation and the final decision is Ofcom’s. Although the RSGB administers applications on our behalf, therefore, the variation to the licence is granted by Ofcom.

8. Any variation that we grant will be valid until 31 December 2019.

9. When your variation expires, you may request a fresh variation for the following three year period, keeping the same call sign, if you still qualify (see ‘Qualifying criteria’, above). You must apply between 1st January and 1st November of the year of expiry. If a fresh application is not received, the call sign will be withdrawn for a period of 2 years before it is made available again.

10. You may ask the RSGB Contest Committee to remind you about your renewal, using the following address scc@rsgb.org.uk While the RSGB has offered this facility, please note that it remains your responsibility to reapply, even if you do not receive a reminder.